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21 Aug 2013

Working with Google - tips for fellow motoring writers and bloggers

This is not the sort of article one associates with Speedmonkey. For a start it has nothing to do with cars. But it does have to do with creating a website from scratch and building an online presence and profile - and therefore increasing traffic to that website.

Speedmonkey has done quite well since its inception. From 0 to 1,322,609 hits in exactly 14 months. I've no motoring writing background and I'm no tech wizard, but I have learned how get traffic to the site.

One method is to get Google on your side. Here's how.

Step 1 - Google is the main search engine. Google owns YouTube, Blogger, Google+, Picasa etc. Get a profile on all Google products you can find. Use your own name. The more presence you have on Google sites the more you will turn up in Google searches.

Step 2 - Sign up for Google Authorship and link it to the above channels as well as your own personal blog. When you find one of my articles in search you will find my name by it. As an example try Googling, "CLA 180 review." You'll find my video review on page 1 with my name underneath:

The reason the A45 AMG review doesn't have my name and photo by it is because it was written by my brother, Colin Hubbard. Colin doesn't have a Google+ profile.

All articles by me either say, "Matt Hubbard reviews..." at the top or, "Article by Matt Hubbard," at the bottom. Google finds this, associates me with my profile and lets its search engine know.

Google knows everything I've written everywhere because I've told it so by dint of the actions in the above paragraph.

Even articles by me that were published before I signed up to Google Authorship have my profile. Google, "Renaultsport Megane review," and on page 1 you find this:

Yes I know Google tailors searches so my own articles are more likely to appear higher in search results, but I've tried the same on my wife's laptop and it showed the same results.

Motoring writers and bloggers - if you want more hits get a Google presence, sign up to Google Authorship and link it to your site.

As your own name starts to carry more weight so Google will increasingly feature articles by you in its search results. Google+ doesn't exactly provide the best social media experience, but maintaining a profile does help increase your presence.